


East Hills Gay Camp

by elliseleven (orphan_account)



Category: East Hills (2019)
Genre: Everyone Is Gay, Gen, apart from the kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25553677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/elliseleven
Summary: To his dismay, Dustin enrolled to volunteer at East Hills Day Camp for the summer to add some experience to his résumé. He expected this camp to be like all the others - fake and boring. But nothing would prepare him for what East Hills had in store.
Relationships: Sara & Dustin, Scott & Dustin, Scott & Sara





	East Hills Gay Camp

Dustin made his way across the playground to where he hoped he would find an entrance of some sort. Him volunteering at the day camp was a last minute decision, so he hadn’t prepared much beforehand. Orientation had already come and gone. He knew he had to make a good impression, but he couldn’t seem to find an adult anywhere.

Once he had turned the corner of a side building, he finally found one. It helped that it looked like a guy his age, but the way he was arguing with one of the kids didn’t instill much confidence into Dustin that he had found someone who could help him.

Dustin stood where he was until he caught the man’s attention and gave an awkward wave.

He quickly dropped whatever conversation he was having and made his way over to Dustin. He seemed way too confident in himself, Dustin noted.

“Hey, can I help you?”

Dustin nodded. “Um, I’m Dustin. I start today.”

“Orientation was a week ago!” He folded his arms and gave Dustin a look, as if Dustin wasn’t already fully aware that he had missed orientation. “How are you gonna take care of these kids if you don’t have the proper knowledge?”

Dustin nodded along until they guy was done talking. He’d already heard this whole spiel from his mom on the drive here. “Yeah. Well, I was told I was gonna be shadowing some counselors for the day. I’m pretty sure that’ll give me the knowledge I need.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Is that so? Well, I guess the rules don’t apply to you then.”

Dustin suppressed an eye roll. What was this guy’s deal? They’d barely been talking for a minute, and he was already being condescending.

“Scott!”

A woman’s voice rang out through the playground. Scott groaned as soon as he realized who had called him. Dustin turned to follow the voice, and it was clear there was some beef between the two of them. This should be interesting.

“You’re not supposed to be talking to new people! You know that Gevin told you not to. You scare them all away!” She stood with her arms folded too, clearly waiting for some sort of excuse.

“Jesus, Sara! I don’t need you telling me what to do. I can make my own decisions on who I want to talk to.”

“Not when our boss says you can’t,” Sara said. Not once had she stopped glaring at him, but her face softened when she turned to look at Dustin. “Hey, new guy. Trust me, we’re not all like Scott. Some of us are nice.” She made a point to glare once again at Scott when she said this.

Dustin couldn’t help but laugh. It was in part to relieve the tension in the air. “I can see that. So who do I need to talk to to get set up here?”

“Oh, just talk to Keith and Gevin in the office back there.” She pointed behind the two of them. “They’ll help you.”

“Thank you, Sara,” Dustin smiled.

“Hey, what about me? Am I invisible or something?” Scott asked, sounding like a child who had realized they weren’t center of attention anymore.

“I wish you were,” Sara mumbled.

“You didn’t really help,” Dustin said, matter-of-factly. “You just laid into me for missing orientation.”

Sara laughed, stopping Scott from starting another argument. “That sounds like him. We’ll leave you to it then. Wouldn’t wanna keep you.” She walked forward and took Scott’s arm, probably hoping he’d leave along with her.

He didn’t. 

“Oh, there’s just one more thing.”

Sara rolled her eyes but let go of his arm, and Dustin raised an eyebrow to invite him to ask whatever the hell this was about to be.

“Well, um,” he began. “Not to brag, but I have a pretty good gaydar, and uh-”

His question was cut short by Sara’s spluttering laughter. She clapped Scott on the shoulder, who glared right back at her.

“Gaydar! That’s hilarious, Scott. Straight people don’t have those.”

Scott grinned at her. “I disagree. I think mine’s pretty good. Anyway, as I was saying. Dustin, are you… um-”

It seemed that Scott wasn’t able to finish his sentence, which lead Dustin to not know how to answer. On the outside, he looked completely nonplussed, but on the inside, his brain had stopped malfunctioning. How could Scott figure that out so quickly? Maybe it was just a very lucky guess but, even so, it completely took him by surprise. 

Sure, a lot of his family and friends thought he was gay, but that was because they knew him very well. He’d always brushed it off, but they had been right. He just never knew what to tell them. Now, this stranger had correctly guessed his sexuality. And from what? The way he stood? The way he talked? What was it that exuded gay energy?

It took all of Dustin’s willpower not to look down at himself to try and figure out what was so gay about him. He made sure to keep staring at Scott like he had asked a stupid question. It wasn’t very hard. He had a feeling this wouldn’t be the first stupid thing Scott would say during his time here.

Dustin was pulled out of his thought spiral by Sara laughing again. She seemed to find this very funny. Maybe too funny. Did she know something Dustin didn’t?

“Come on, Scott. He isn’t gay. Let’s leave him alone.”

She took his arm again and proceeded to drag him away. Scott didn’t seem to struggle much, but he had  _ one  _ more question.

“Hey, what’s your name again?”

“Dustin!”

“Oh, Justin. Welcome to East Hills!”

Dustin considered shouting back that it was  _ Dustin  _ with a D, but Scott and Sara were too far away by then to bother. He had to sign in at the office anyway. He just hoped that the higher ups would get his name right.

They didn’t.

“Justin,” Gevin smiled as he finished filling in the paper work. “Well, that’s all I need ya for. Welcome to East Hills! We’re looking forward to getting to know you over the summer!”

Dustin nodded. He was getting tired already of people mispronouncing his name, but it was even more effort to correct them. He quickly decided not to bother anymore.

“Hey, Gev!” Another man walked in. Dustin assumed that this was Keith, who Sara told him about.

“Hey, Keith!”

Gevin stood up from his chair and the two men embraced, maybe for longer than need be. Dustin made a mental note that he might have to get used to people touching or hugging him out of the blue. He’d never been a fan of that.

Almost as soon as he’d thought this, Keith surprised him with a hug too.

“Hey! You’re the new guy, right?”

This was his chance. “Yeah, my name’s-”

“This is Justin! We’re pumped to have him on the team, right, Keith?”

Dustin sighed. He knew it wouldn’t have been that easy.

“We sure are! We can’t wait to get to know you!”

Dustin winced at how loud Keith was but didn’t step away. He didn’t want to come off as rude.

Thankfully, Gevin let Dustin go but not before he told Dustin that he would be working with Sara and Scott for the whole summer.

It was a bittersweet feeling for Dustin. Sweet that he would get to know Sara more, but bitter that he would have that same chance with Scott. He didn’t quite know what to say to that, so he just nodded.

“Great! They should still be outside. Go and have fun!”

“Right. Thanks.”

* * *

“Hey, Justin!” Sara waved to him from the swing set. 

Dustin sighed for the millionth time that day. It seemed that Scott had told Sara that his name was  _ Justin _ . For the first time ever, he wished that his mom had just named him Justin, so he didn’t have to go through all of this right now.

“Hey!” Dustin waved back after swallowing down his irritation. He quickly realized that Scott was nowhere around, which was a win for him.

Sara seemed to be pushing a teenager on a swing. They had a cap covering their eyes and didn’t reply when Dustin introduced himself. He looked up at Sara with a confused expression.

“Oh, she just isn’t very sociable with new people. She had a meltdown earlier, and swinging helps calm her down.”

Dustin nodded. “Okay.”

“Actually,” Sara began. “Could we swap? My arms are getting kinda tired. She’ll tell me when she wants to stop.”

“Sure. No worries.”

The three of them stood, and sat, in silence for a while. It was kind of calming, and Dustin was grateful for that since this whole day so far had been chaotic. No thanks to Scott, in particular.

“It’s weird.” Dustin decided to break the silence. He was never usually talkative, but he felt like he could be around Sara. She wouldn’t judge him, or so he believed.

“What?”

“I remember getting pushed on swings like these. It’s weird being the pusher now.”

Sara snorted, covering her mouth. “The ‘pusher’? You people say the weirdest things.”

Dustin turned to look at her, his eyebrow raised. “The pusher? Is that not a word?”

She shrugged. “I think so. But, y’know, rich people say weird shit.”

He smiled and shook his head. “I’m not rich, believe me. My family does okay, but we’re not rich.”

“Sure.” 

She looked Dustin up and down for a moment, which made Dustin slightly uncomfortable and worried about what she might say next.

“Rich, white male…” She was still looking at him like before.

Dustin bit back a laugh. What was she talking about? What did that have to do with the way he talked?

“You know…”

He saw her mime batting a baseball, and he rolled his eyes. He knew  _ exactly  _ what that implied. Not this again. What was it about him that made people think he was gay?! She was right, but that doesn’t mean it was alright for her to assume things. Do gay people use the word ‘pusher’? What  _ was  _ it?!

“I’m not gay!” He’d had enough of people making fun of him for ‘looking’ gay, ‘talking’ gay, whatever the hell it was. He just wanted to fit in here like everyone else!

Sara’s eyes widened, like she wasn’t aware of what she just did. “I didn’t say anything! Just chill out, alright? You don’t like gay people. It’s cool, whatever.”

Another eye roll from Dustin. So he was either gay or homophobic? That was ridiculous. “I  _ love  _ gay people. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, so you are into gay people.”

He tried his hardest not to flip out. Sara was really getting on his nerves. Funnily enough, it hadn’t registered with him that she could be doing this on purpose. 

“Well, I don’t  _ love  _ gay people.” A blatant lie, he knew, but he would say anything to get her to just shut up.

“Dude, you don’t gotta be homophobic.”

“I’m not gay!”

Sara couldn’t help but laugh. What was with this guy? Why did he take all this so seriously? It was just a joke! Was his masculinity  _ that  _ fragile? She giggled. If it was anything like how Scott reacted when she’d told the same joke, she would have to go with yes.

“Oh my God. You’re so easy!”

Dustin stopped pushing the swing for a second to cover his face with one of his hands. Of course, it would be a joke! He felt so stupid! 

“Hey, don’t stop swinging,” Sara said, her smile fading for a moment.

“Sorry.”

After that brief interlude where Dustin tried his hardest not to turn tomato red in front of Sara, she continued speaking. She couldn’t believe how easy this joke had been. It was maybe even easier than it had been with Scott. Interesting.

“Look, I was only joking. I don’t really think you’re gay. Come to think of it-” she paused, trying to remember back a few weeks. “-Scott was exactly the same. He got so mad with me. It was hilarious!”

Dustin stared at her. He only reacted like this because he  _ was  _ gay. He’d immediately taken offense, and tried maybe too hard to convince her he wasn’t. If Scott had done the same, did that mean-? He gulped. This made it a little harder to hate him now. He cursed inwardly.

“What?” Sara furrowed her brows. “I’m just saying that Scott responded similarly. It doesn’t mean you two are exactly the same. You’re still nicer than him. It’s okay, really.”

They both laughed. Dustin, of course, hadn’t thought that, but he was thankful that Sara had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“Can I get off now?”

It took a while for Dustin to realize the girl on the swing had spoken. She was looking up at Sara, almost treating Dustin as if he didn’t exist. He tried not to take offense at that.

“Sure! I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

The girl grinned at her, hopped off the swing, and began to walk back to the playground.

“Thank god I can stop now,” Dustin muttered, turning his hands over. The parts that had been holding on to the metal were red. “My hands are starting to hurt.”

Sara giggled. “I probably should’ve switched with you again. Sorry, man.”

“It’s alright. They’ll probably be fine.”

Sara nodded. “Probably, but if you need something extra, there’s a first aid kit in the office. You know Gevin’s office?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Dustin didn’t really want to go there again, but he would if he had to.

“Anyway,” Sara continued. It was like she didn’t stop for breath. Not that Dustin minded. He was just happy that no one was accusing him of being gay anymore. “I’m sure no one looks at you and thinks that you’re actually-”

“Gay Justin!”

Sara and Dustin both turned to each other and sighed. Of course, Scott would ruin the moment. He seemed to be famous for that.

They decided not to keep him waiting much longer, so they left the swings and walked over there. Scott seemed to be very happy for one reason or another. Dustin had to look away, lest he figure out why Scott was looking at him like that. He didn’t want to assume Scott had a crush on him just because he was gay especially since he didn’t even have proof of that. But it was hard not to think that, considering the morning’s events.

“Hey, buddy!” Scott grinned at Dustin, barely even acknowledging Sara. “I’ve got a task for you.”

Dustin was standing about a meter away so Scott had to step forward on purpose to fist bump him on the shoulder. Dustin didn’t mind, but it was a bit odd that Scott would go out of his way to do such a thing. He tried not to think about the reason why.

“What is it?” Dustin sighed. From the little he knew of Scott, it couldn’t be good.

“Keep this little shit busy while Sara goes to find Simon.” Scott gestured to his side where a little boy was standing. Dustin hadn’t realized he was there until Scott pointed him out.

“Scott! Don’t swear in front of Johnny! Or any of the kids!” Sara hadn’t even taken a breath before she was berating him. Dustin admired her for that. “And what do you mean ‘find Simon’?”

“It’s what it sounds like!” Scott looked at Sara, as if she were stupid. “I’ve hid Simon. Don’t worry, I gave him a Lunchables and a Capri Sun. He could survive for at least four weeks easy.”

“You can’t just send a kid off into the woods and expect that he’s gonna be okay! He has mood swings and-”

Dustin let himself tune out Sara and Scott’s argument, knowing it wasn’t going to calm down any time soon, and walked over to Johnny. It wasn’t his job to worry about Simon anyway, and he trusted Sara to find him.

“Hey, buddy. How about we leave these two to it and go and play some ball?”

“Okay, Justin!”

They had started walking away from Scott and Sara - not that they had noticed - and Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose. Not again! He took a deep breath. He was only a kid. Maybe he didn’t know any better.

“Actually, it’s Dustin.” He tried to keep his voice level.

Johnny looked up at him with curious eyes. “Is that a real name?”

Dustin sighed. “Yeah. But, look, that doesn’t matter.” He was tired of talking. “Let’s just play catch until Sara gets back, alright?”

“Okay!”

It turned out that Johnny wasn’t very good at playing catch. He didn’t even move his arms most of the time, even when the ball was coming straight at him. Dustin kept trying to tell him that his arms were important in playing catch, but Johnny either didn’t understand or didn’t want to listen. 

The huge smile on his face indicated that he was still having fun though, so Dustin decided to drop it for now. He didn’t want to upset the kid, in case he had mood swings like Simon.

A few minutes later, Scott came into Dustin’s vision. Dustin smiled and gave a short wave and acted like Scott wasn’t the last person he wanted to see.

“Hey, man,” he waved. “Good job keeping Johnny busy.”

“Um, thanks, Scott.” Dustin didn’t see how this was very difficult at all. Johnny seemed to be perfectly behaved, although a little odd.

Dustin threw the ball again to Johnny, which hit him right in the stomach. He fell down then immediately sprung back up with a huge grin, and Dustin had to retrieve the ball himself. It had quickly become routine, and Dustin was slowly getting used to it.

“You know,” Scott started when Dustin was back to his original spot. “It takes skill to work with kids with behavioral difficulties, and that seems like something that you’ve got.” He put his hand to Dustin’s chest possibly to indicate that Dustin actually had a heart. 

It took Dustin by surprise. He cleared his throat and stepped away. He didn’t expect Scott to do that, despite how touchy he had been with him so far that day. That seemed just a bit too much to just be friendly. He didn’t know how to take that.

He threw the ball to Johnny once again but didn’t go to get it this time.

“Are you always like this, Scott?”

Scott looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Like, affectionate. You keep touching me. I mean, my friends don’t even do that with me. My family hug me a lot, sure, but only when we’re all together. This is… Is this normal for you?”

“Oh.” Suddenly, Scott’s throat had gone dry. He didn’t realize how much he had been doing that. Sure, he was quite a physical person with how he interacted with people. It was just how he was, but if Dustin had noticed it then maybe he was doing it too much. He already knew why that could be, but God knows he wouldn’t tell Dustin.

Dustin waited for a reply then figured he wasn’t getting one. He shook his head. “Look, man, don’t worry about it. I’m just not used to it, that’s all.”

“Yeah.”

Dustin studied Scott for a moment. He usually wasn’t so quiet. What was up with him?

Scott was looking right back at Dustin, trying to figure out what was going on with himself. Maybe, he… No, that couldn’t be it. He couldn’t have a  _ crush  _ on Dustin! That was insane! It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, but he couldn’t…

“Scott?”

Scott was pulled out of his thoughts then quickly looked away, his cheeks heating up. He didn’t realize he’d been staring for so long. “Sorry.”

Dustin was surprised that Scott had apologized to him. He almost thought he was incapable of apologizing. “It’s alright. Why don’t we just go and see if Sara and Simon are okay?”

“Sure.”

Dustin made sure that Johnny went off safely to play with the other kids, and Scott and Dustin made their way to the forest where Scott had hidden Simon.

“I can’t believe you did that, you know.”

“What?” Scott asked. “Hid Simon, you mean? He was the one who wanted to do it! He said it would be fun!”

“Right,” Dustin laughed. “Just because he wanted to do something doesn’t mean he should do it. He has mental issues.”

Scott rolled his eyes. “He’ll be fine.”

Dustin didn’t say anything to that. He was mostly thinking about what happened just a few minutes ago. Why had Scott stared at him, and why did he touch him so much? Maybe his gut was right. Scott did have a crush on him.

The two men sat down on a bench and waited. Five minutes passed before Scott spoke.

“Hey, uh, you know when I asked if you were gay earlier?”

“Yeah.” How could he forget? “What about it?”

“Well, you never answered me,” Scott chuckled. “I just wanted to know.”

Dustin took a deep breath. Should he keep ignoring him or confess to him what he’s been trying to ignore within himself for years? Another deep breath, longer this time. He had to decide.

“Yes.”

Scott turned to him, surprise evident on his face. “What? Yes, you are gay?”

Dustin nodded, and Scott almost yelled in excitement.

“Oh my God! I knew it! I knew I wasn’t the only one!”

Dustin chuckled, surprised yet comforted by Scott’s reaction. “You’re gay too?”

“Uh, yeah.” Scott suddenly mellowed. He looked to his feet and shuffled them a bit. “Well, technically, I think I’m bisexual. I’ve, um, never told anyone before. I was just scared of being the only one here so-”

Dustin cut him off by placing a hand on his shoulder. It was the least he could do. “I know, man. I understand how you’re feeling. It’s scary coming out. Like, I’ve never told anyone either. You were just so persistent that I couldn’t keep ignoring you.”

Scott tried to focus on replying to Dustin’s comment, but he couldn’t ignore that Dustin’s hand was on his shoulder. “Uh, yeah. Thanks, Justin.”

He tilted his head to the side. “For what?”

“For being honest.”

“Oh.” Dustin was surprised at that. He didn’t realize how easy it would’ve been to make Scott comfortable. “No problem, man. Anything else you want to tell me?”

Scott laughed awkwardly, and Dustin could tell what was coming.

“Justin-”

“It’s Dustin.” Despite telling himself earlier that he wouldn’t bother correcting people anymore, he wanted to do all he could to postpone this confession.

“Are you sure?” Scott raised his eyebrow. “Doesn’t sound like a real name to me.”

Dustin snorted. “That’s exactly what Johnny said.  _ Yes _ , it’s a real name. Do you want to see some ID?”

Scott chuckled. “Nah, I’m just messing with ya. So, Dustin, I, uh-”

Dustin watched as Scott stumbled over his words. He closed his eyes to prepare himself. He was gonna have to finish his sentence. “You have a crush on me, right?”

Scott looked up with wide eyes. “Wh- How did you-?”

“Come on, dude. It’s obvious! Even I could tell from a mile away.”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

They both laughed. Scott finally felt like a weight had been lifted. Dustin felt the same, but he had a feeling that Scott’s weight was heavier than his.

“So…” Scott began again. “Do you… feel the same way?”

Dustin shook his head. It surprised him that he felt bad about rejecting him. “No, I don’t. I’m sorry.”

Scott looked away. “It’s fine. Whatever.”

“But I want to be friends with you.”

“You do? I thought you hated me or something.”

Dustin chuckled. He didn’t like Scott at all, he was sure of that, but he never  _ hated  _ him. The only reason why he didn’t want to be around Scott was because he knew that Scott liked him. Also, he was a dick, but that came a close second. But sitting here made him realize that Scott was actually a good guy underneath this front that he put up.

He voiced his thoughts to Scott, not leaving out any of the harsh truths. He felt like neither of them could keep secrets anymore.

“Well, I mean, I had that coming, huh?” Scott laughed. “Sure, we can be friends.”

Scott held out his hand, and Dustin shook it. They smiled at each other. Things were finally looking up between them.

A thought came to Dustin, and he laughed to himself.

Scott looked across to him, his smile growing wider the more Dustin laughed. “What?”

“You said you were bi.”

“Yeah?” Instinctively, he wanted to shrink away, but he knew he could trust Dustin, so he didn’t. “What about it?”

“What about you and Sara, huh?” Dustin winked.

Scott was flustered for a moment before he realized what Dustin had implied. He pretended to retch. “Ew, no! I don’t like Sara at all!”

Dustin grinned. “I know. I was only kidding. You’re at each other’s throats all the time. It’s obvious that you don’t.”

“Yeah. I don’t know if you can tell, but I have standards.”

Dustin laughed, but didn’t reply. He was pretty sure that Sara was way out of his league.

Their conversation was cut short by two pairs of footsteps heading their way. It was Sara and Simon. Her mission was a success, it seemed.

“Is Simon okay?” Dustin called.

“Yeah, he’s fine. I’m just glad I found him before something bad could happen.” Sara shot a glare at Scott, who returned it. 

Simon seemed to be oblivious of the trauma he had been through and was sitting on the grass, picking out blades and tearing them up. Sara would usually tell him to stop, but she was too mad at Scott to notice.

“I knew he would be fine!” Scott rolled his eyes. “You worry too much.”

“Whatever,” Sara sighed. She was clearly tired from having to clean up Scott’s mess, as usual. She sat down next to Simon and put a hand on his, finally noticing. “Don’t do that to the grass, Simon. It needs to be left alone to grow.”

Simon frowned, but he stopped. He would do anything Sara told him to, and she was fully aware of this. “Fine.”

“Anyway,” she continued, turning back to the men, resting her chin on her hand. “What were you guys talking about?”

Scott and Dustin fell silent. Scott tried to come up with some lie, but Sara laughed it off. She learned pretty quickly to never trust anything Scott said.

“Was it something secret? I love secrets! Please tell me.”

“Scott has a crush on you.”

“Dustin!” Scott pushed Dustin as hard as he could, and Dustin stumbled to the side, laughing. Sara, meanwhile, was in a fit of giggles. It took her a while to calm down along with Scott’s flushed face.

She was still giggling when she spoke. “That  _ has  _ to be a joke! That can’t be true!” She took a few deep breaths. “And anyway, even if I was attracted to guys, I would still have standards.”

Scott and Dustin stared at her and voiced their surprise at the same time. “What?”

“Hello? I’m lesbian?” Sara looked at them as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I thought you were American.”

Simon had apparently decided to contribute to this conversation. Sara figured that she would have to be the one to explain since both men were in fits of laughter behind her.

“I am American, Simon. My parents came from Mexico though.”

“Actually,” Scott cut in when he could speak properly again. “It’s a reference-”

“I think I’d know more about my heritage than you, Scott.”

Seeing Sara’s expression, he knew he wouldn’t be able to explain what he meant. He sighed. “Never mind.”

Dustin gave him a sympathetic look. “It doesn’t matter, Scott. I understood it anyway.”

Scott nodded. “I’m glad  _ someone’s  _ cultured.”

“So.” Sara didn’t seem to realize that Scott was trying to insult her. “Are we, like, the queer musketeers or something?”

Scott and Dustin laughed. 

“I guess so. I mean, that sounds good to me,” Dustin grinned. If he’d have known that it would’ve been so easy to come out, he would’ve done it years ago. 

“Can I join you?” Simon asked. He had started picking the grass again.

Sara giggled. “No, Simon. You’re, like, ten. You shouldn’t have to be worrying about who you like yet.”

“Unless he’s straight, right?” Dustin raised an eyebrow. He’d seen too many parents acting like their kids are ‘too young to know about their sexuality’ whenever them being gay was mentioned, but when their kid was seen being friends with another kid of the opposite gender, they suddenly weren’t too young anymore. Frankly, he was sick of it.

Sara’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, no, no. I didn’t mean it like that! I meant, like, he shouldn’t have to worry about any of that at his age, regardless of sexuality. We should just let kids be kids, y’know?”

Scott looked impressed, which surprised her. “You know, I think that’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say. And that’s saying something.”

Sara laughed. “Just say you agree with me, Scott. No need to be shy.”

“Fine,” Scott rolled his eyes. “I agree with you, alright? Don’t make me say it again.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. But, um, thanks.” 

“No problem.”

Comfortable silence fell over the four of them. It seemed that the quiet was too much for Simon to handle as he was quick to run off and join the other kids. 

“I didn’t think my first day would be quite like this,” Dustin muttered to himself. It had been a chaotic first day, for sure.

“Me too,” Scott agreed. He had wondered about how he and the rest of East Hills would take the new guy coming in, but he couldn’t have predicted this. The two of them coming out to each other was even more absurd. The most surprising of all, however, had to be that Sara was just like them. Scott had never imagined having something in common with Sara of all people.

The two of them made eye contact for a split second. Usually, this would be an excuse for one of them to shoot daggers at the other or to get into an argument, but not this time. They just smiled at each other and turned away. It was strange for them to be getting along so well, but it wasn’t overlooked in the slightest.

Dustin smiled to himself. Maybe his summer wouldn’t be so bad after all.


End file.
